In general, a centralized network typically includes a network topology that branches from one or more centralized facilitating servers, whereby data, information and queries are distributed between network users through the one or more centralized facilitating servers. The locations of network users are typically in reference to the centralized server, and the relationships between the network users and the one or few centralized servers provides the overall structure of the network. In conventional centralized networks, a highly centralized server can become a single point of failure for the entire network, and a network centralized around one or a few connection hubs can abruptly fail if a single hub is disabled or removed.
A less centralized network (e.g., decentralized network) can have no single points of failure due to multiple data paths through the network and thus can be relatively less vulnerable to random failures because, if some network paths fail, the remaining network users can still reach each other over other network paths. In general, a decentralized network typically includes a network topology that allows network users to distribute data, information and queries directly through other network users without relying on a central facilitating server. However, determining locations of decentralized network users can be difficult because network paths do not originate from a particular network server and network users can be scattered throughout a region such that network paths follow random patterns.